What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #24
A silent classic, a 2009 favorite and a best of decade contender
Other than the films below, I also watched a couple of Blu-rays I will be reviewing soon including the tenth anniversary edition of 10 Things I Hate about You and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I also watched the last half of WALL•E on television, but didn't include it below, but man I love that film.
Now to this week's list…
| Faust (1926) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: I had never seen this film from F.W. Murnau, and I have actually only seen Murnau's Nosferatu and Sunrise only once, despite the praise all three of these films receive. However, with all three I have had the same reaction… which is rather muted, but not necessarily as a result of the film, but more in terms of the fact the quality of the picture on all three was not particularly pleasant. As for this copy of Faust from Netflix, it was Kino's 2001 release and not their 2009 restored release. When I first saw Nosferatu it was on VHS and I while Sunrise is available on Blu-ray abroad we are still only left to order Fox's, now out of print, DVD edition. Faust, though, was a decent watch, and Murnau has always impressed me visually and this one is loaded with visual effects, which (while obvious in terms of today's CG standards) you will be stunned to know were filmed in the 1920s. Along with Nosferatu, Ebert calls Faust "of the greatest films of the supernatural." And while the film moved me more visually than it does in any other way, a scene of Gretchen in the snow and the film's final moments are sure to stick with anyone that watches it regardless of of your opinion to that point. There is a lot of striking imagery and it's extremely daring, which is certainly one of the main reason Murnau's films live on while modern horror directors have such a hard time remaining relevant longer than their Friday opening. | |
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| Mission: Impossible (1996) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: For Christmas I received the Mission: Impossible trilogy on Blu-ray, which made me quite happy. My copy of Mission: Impossible on DVD was anamorphic and was therefore presented in a 4:3 thumbnail format on my widescreen television and my copy of Mission: Impossible III was on HD DVD. So, to have them all on Blu-ray now cleans up three discs in my collection. I also added the X-Men trilogy to my Blu-ray collection this Christmas, but still haven't explored it yet. | |
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| City of God (2003) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: As I am still trying to figure out how I am going to recap the past decade (2000-2009) I have been making sure to rewatch a few films here and there. I had only watched this film once way back in 2004 when I reviewed the DVD, but hadn't watched it since. Why? I don't know. I absolutely loved returning to this film and will be sure to return to it much sooner than another five years down the line. And if I do put something for the decade together this will most certainly be included in my commentary. | |
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| Star Trek (2009) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: I mentioned how I had just watched the Blu-ray version in my top ten so this should come as no surprise. | |
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There you have it. Now share your weekly recaps and weigh in with any thoughts you may have on the films I saw. And remember to connect with my Netflix queue by clicking here, I have already added several titles from those that have already linked up.
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I decided that in 2010 I would watch at least 365 films. I've watched four so far:
The Dam Busters
The Squid and the Whale
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (quite a good documentary which was screened at some festivals, so I've decided to include it in my tally)
The Devil's Backbone
I've also started watching Junebug but I'm having a lot of trouble getting into it. I've stopped it twice already.
@Brad-City of God is perhapas the best edited film i have ever seen…hey brad why cant we have categories on Editing,Cinematography and Screenplays for Oscar????let us discuss abt them..wid proper noms selected by you…
Up in the Air – B+
The Constant Gardener – A-
In the Bedroom – A
Adaptation – B+
28 Days Later (rewatch) – A
Traffic (rewatch) – A
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (rewatch) – A-
I enjoyed each film I saw this week immensely!
LOTR Fellowship
New Moon
Grandmas Boy
Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi (not a movie, but come on…)
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Resident Evil 1&2
I am Legend
Sherlock Holmes – great fun, Downey, Law and McAdams were great and I was very pleasantly surprised that it was very far from being a dumbed down action comedy the trailers made it look. The script was pretty good and it was closer to the original stories than I would ever imagine. The only real flaw was a terribly written villain who had like 15 minutes of screentime and did nothing but gave those cliched corny evil speeches.
Tropic Thunder (re-watch) – one of the best spoofs ever and great entertainment.
Live Free or Die Hard (re-watch) – I enjoyed it once again, but felt it was overloaded with action, the villain was bad and some of the dialogue was too cheesy/corny. On the other hand, Bruce was awesome, I liked Justin Long, the plot was pretty fine and while overall there was too much action, that doesn't mean it was bad.
Where the Wild Things Are – appreciated the atmosphere, the music, the cinematography and the characters, thought Max Records was great, but I found myself looking at my watch and bored several times. I really liked the overall experience but I doubt I would want to watch it again anytime soon.
I'm surprised at how many films I watched this week (if only I always had this amount of free time):
Sherlock Holmes – 7/10
Nine – 6/10
Coraline – 7/10
An Education – 7/10
The Big Easy – 6/10
The Bounty – 6/10
Safe – 6/10
Nothing but The Truth – 6/10
Orphan – 5/10
Re-watches-
Inglorious Basterds – 10/10
Gran Torino – 10/10
Strange Days – 8/10
Young Sherlock Holmes & The Pyramid of Fear – 7/10
Star Trek and Mission Impossible are great movies.
I watched:
The Dark Knight (rewatch)- A+
District 9- A
9- D
Family Guy: Blue Harvest (rewatch)- A
Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side (rewatch) A-
Drag Me to Hell – Enjoyable B movie
The Jerk (rewatch) – Classic Steve Martin comedy
Taking Woodstock: 6/10
Julie & Julia: 6/10
(500) Days of Summer (rewatch): 9/10
Away We Go (rewatch): 8/10
I've also been busy watching the first season of True Blood since I just picked up the DVD set.
12/27-1/2:
Invictus – C-
Tetro – B+
Harry Brown – D
It Might Get Loud – B-
Uncertainty – C
A Prophet – B+
Broken Embraces – A-
Brothers (2009) – B- (not nearly as good as the original)
Pale Rider – B-
An Education – A
Roxanne (rewatch) – B-
Duplicity (rewatch) – B+
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (rewatch) – A
DVD Rewatches:
Bad Santa – one of my favorite christmas movies.
The Truman Show – gets better everytime I watch it.
L.A. Confidential – my third favorite movie of all time.
Theaters:
The Road – highly disappointing, I don't get why people like it.
Up in the Air – good, but not great.
The Maltese falcon- 10/10
The bourne identity- 9/10
Avatar- 10/10
12 angry men- 10/10
Cool hand Luke- 10/10
Tropic thunder- 9/10
G-Force 7/10
The Last Legion 4/10
Drag Me To Hell 9/10
Julie & Julia 7/10
Theatres:
Nine: I saw it and I can rest now. Not die, but rest. 6/10
TCM:
Lolita: I missed the first half of the first scene (I got to the part where the guy was asking Humbert to play ping pong?) and I slept in between Lolita giving Humbert breakfast and Shelley Winters finding Humbert's diary. Is that enough? I still liked what I saw. 9/10
Torrents (shh)
Bad Education: As part of losing my Almodovar virginity (I saw Talk to Her and Volver last week). 8/10
Rewatch:
Chicago. Everything just jelled together. 9/10
Sound of Music: Do I have a soul? Yes. 9/10
Hedwig and the Angry Inch: Lost me at the end. 8/10.
Theatre
La Danse – Wiseman's latest documentary about the Paris Opera Ballet is lengthy but fascinating A-
Nine – ugh – what a mess C-
Sherlock Holmes – great fun, really liked RDJ and Jude Law together B
DVD
Capote – Philip Seymour Hoffman is outstanding A
C’est pas moi, je le jure! (It’s Not Me, I Swear!) – a French Canadian film that is a little gem A+
Star Trek (rewatch) – loved it all over again A
Gosford Park (rewatch) – fantastic upstairs/downstairs mystery but so much more A+
In the Loop – 9/10
-Funniest movie I've ever seen. I'm not kidding.
Inglourious Basterds (rewatch) – 9/10
-Incredible film, Pitt and Waltz steal the show
Charlie Bartlett – 8/10
-Wanted to be more than it was, but salvaged a bit by outstanding performances by Yelchin and Downey Jr.
Paranormal Activity – 7/10
-Laughed almost the whole way through, but last ten minutes were genuinely scary
Paranormal Activity (rewatch) – 8/10
-Realized I may have been too cynical the first time
Team America: World Police (rewatch) – 8/10
-Last movie of '09, first of '10 as we paused the DVD to watch the ball drop… Aside from that, this film is hilarious and represents its decade well
The Producers (2004) – 7/10
-Two words: Too long
Adventureland – 9/10
-Everything Charlie Bartlett wanted to be and more. One of my favorite films of the year and I really wish it'd get more acclaim
The Hurt Locker – 9/10
-Didn't like as much as I'd been led to expect, but I'm not a big war movie fan
(500) Days of Summer – 8/10
-Shot for the stars, and made it only to the moon. Still a great film, so close to a 9. Joseph Gordon-Leavitt was great.
Fantastic Mr. Fox – 8/10
-I need to rewatch this, but I really liked this film and have a strong feeling that I'll like it better the second time around.
District 9 – 8/10
-Felt a bit clunky, but had a neat, neat premise
Brad i watched District 9 for the first time this weekend and I really wish i could talk with you about the movie becaus ei read your thoughts on it and i agree on some parts and others i want to throw a theroy your way and see what you think.
District 9 9/10
Cop Land rewatch 10/10
Narc rewatch 10/10
@Josh (Go UNC and Lakers!!!!): Shoot me an email using the contact form.
Didn't do this last week as I was visiting in-laws so here's two weeks worth.
Avatar – Predictable story in amazing surroundings. B+
Catwoman – Oh boy the director loves cgi-crane-shots! Kind of a ridiculous film. F
The Jacket (re-watch) – Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley are my favorites and also the concept of timetravel has some strange appeal to me. So what's not to like? The story has a dreamlike quality to it and I especially like the hopeful feeling the ending gives. B
Rocky Balboa – D
The Road – Finally got a chance to see this as it opened here christmas day. I will definitely read the book and I'm expecting to like it even more than the movie. B+
Gilda – I don't watch movies of this age often so I can't compare it to it's contemporaries. I can imagine that the character of Gilda was not the typical woman of the 40´s films. B-
Domino – A bit of a mess and in my opinion has too much of everything. The story just fell apart at some point. D+
Timeline – Another timetraveling movie. I read the book some years ago and enjoyed it as a good adventure. Movie was just that, a good adventure and decent entertainment and that's it. C-
Hollywoodland – My appeal to Adrien Brody won over my dislike of Ben Affleck and I'm glad it did. A good mystery story with no apparent resolution to the mystery was just the right call to make in this case. B-
Hide and Seek (re-watch) – It loses some of the appeal when you know the punch line. Dakota Fanning does really good work and manages to be genuinely creepy despite her young age. C
The Terminal (re-watch) – The first time I saw this I caught it in a matinee and in the theater there was me and one other person. I enjoyed this the first time around but not so much anymore. C
In the theater:
Up In The Air – A-
Sherlock Holmes – B+
on DVD and streaming:
Film Geek – F
Humpday – B+
Hard Candy – B
Arlen Faber – A-
Rory O'Shea was here – C+
Lonesome Jim – B-
Snow Angels – B+
Mulholland Dr. – C+
Busy week watching movies…
Slow week for me, only two films:
Ronin –
A nice action film, but for some reason I tend to lose interest in films during the car chases and this one had plenty of them. Either way it was nice to see Robert De Niro and Jean Reno in a film together. I've been meaning to watch this one for a while, so I am glad I finally got around to it.
Marley and Me –
I'm a dog person, so this is the first film in a while that had me crying. As a film it was okay, but after going through something similar with my dog last year, it really touched me.
Blu-Ray
Watchmen Ultimate Cut
2001: A Space Odyssey (Forgot how slow some scenes were but Beautiful!)
Close Encounters of The Third Kind
Theater
AVATAR!!! (Loved It!!)